1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON). More specifically, the present invention relates to dynamic management of polling rates in an EPON.
2. Background Art
In conventional Ethernet Passive Optical Networks, an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) periodically polls multiple Optical Network Units (ONUs) to determine the amount of bandwidth that needs to allocated for each upstream queue in each ONU. However, some queues may not have any data to transmit resulting in unnecessary polling and wasted bandwidth by the OLT.
Methods and systems are needed to overcome the above mentioned deficiency.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers may indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number may identify the drawing in which the reference number first appears.